Highway 1

 Where to begin?  This past 3 day weekend was one of our favorites thus far.  We left the pups with our new friend and wonderful dog sitter, Molly, while we packed up the car and headed to the coast.  I was supposed to get out of work early to beat rush hour, but when you’re leaving for a day it seems as there is triple the work to make sure things go smoothly.  So..we got off a tad late and we learned quickly that San Francisco rush hour isn’t something to mess with as 15 miles took over an hour.  Luckily, we were on no schedule and eventually we made it to Highway 1 and then drove down to beautiful Monterey Bay.   On the way we stopped at one of the many lookouts of the  ocean to see the sunset and enjoy our picnic dinner! 

Sea Horse!

Petting the Sting Ray!

Friday, we got up and went to the aquarium.  This aquarium is big on education which includes the scary facts of the direction our sea life is headed with global warming but also provides an underlying hint of optimism on things we can do and things people are currently doing that can slow and even reverse some of the damage our oceans are undergoing.  While there were many neat exhibits, our favorite was the sea horse exhibit which featured a wide variety of funky looking critters!!  Did you know that the male sea horse is the one that has the pregnancy and births the baby sea horses?  Neither did we...he has a little pouch that the mom lays the eggs and he keeps them until time to hatch!  After spending the morning at the aquarium we ate our picnic lunch and walked through the town including along the famous Cannery Row while enjoying a caramel apple and chocolate covered strawberries!! 

From Monterrey Bay, we hopped back onto Highway 1 and headed south through Big Sur country.  We lost count of the number of times we pulled the car off on the narrow road for breath-taking view after breath-taking view.  It was a beautiful day so we saw lots of motorcycles and convertables taking advantage of the day.  Due to a mud slide two months ago a stretch of highway 1 was closed.  It was 20 miles from where we were headed for the day.  We were told by locals that we should turn around to where we started and take a different road to get to Cambria as they said the scenery is beautiful but the alternate road is horrible….so we took the horrible road despite their recommendations so we could “experience” the landscape.  Luckily, it truly was beautiful because the road we took had more twists and turns than I have seen in my life and I almost lost my lunch in the process.  This 20 miles took 2 hours with the new route…. BUT it was beautiful J!!  We stopped for the evening in the coastal town, Cambria.  We lucked out with a hotel right across from the beach and upon Aunt Cyndi’s recommendation we feasted on amazing bread, calamari, local beer, and a sea scallop pasta at the Sea Chest.

A walk on the beach!

 Saturday, we got up and went for a run on the board walk.  It was another beautiful day and actually a little warmer than the previous day.  After running, we took a long walk along the beach which included hiking over rocks with nearby seals resting.  After our walk, we packed up and went to San Simeon to tour the Hearst Castle which is a lot like the east-coast’s Biltmore.  Basically, Hearst was a rich newspaper publisher who built an incredible castle with 165 rooms on top of a mountain that has a match-less view over the ocean on his 270,000 acre property.  He hosted the most famous people of his time in his home which was immaculately decorated with art from all over the world, as well as housing two pools, a tennis court, and his own personal zoo.  It was a very cool tour in which I’m glad our money went to the state parks rather than the billionaire estate as his sons donated the estate to the state of California a number of years ago.  After the castle, we drove a few miles north to a look-out of that had a beach full of elephant seals.  It was wild.  Again, we picnicked by the ocean and then drove another hour and a half south down highway 1 to Santa Barbara. As we were driving to Santa Barbara we chatted with our good friend from back home, Kevin Clark, who told us that Santa Barbara was one of the most gorgeous places he had ever visited. We agreed! It is a beautiful city as it sits between the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Santa Ynez Mountains to the east.  We were of course in the mood for more seafood so found ourselves eating in the harbor on a table outside of Brophy Bros, a local favorite, as the sun was setting.  We loved just looking out in the ocean with all the boats and watching the pelicans dive into the water to catch a fish.  We then completed the night with a delicious cookie and ice cream dessert at Stearn’s Wharf.

Sunday morning we got up early to rent a tandem kayak.  We took the “typical” path which was around the harbor then out to the sea where there are sea lions resting on the buoys and then back around under the pier where there are lots of star fish and sting rays.  We stopped a few times just to take it all in.  After docking the kayak we visited the Santa Barbara Mission and headed back north to San Luis Obisbo where we met Aunt Cyndi's friends Kay, Penny, and Mike for a wonderful lunch at the Big Sky Café.  They then took use to the old San Luis Port which was another beautiful spot!!  The best part was hiking down the pier to a dock which had a sign that said “Beware, Sea Lions will bite.”  When you get to the bottom of the steps...bam, there were about 4 huge sealions within 10 feet of us.  I was a little skittish when one of them moved ever so slightly so decided not to stay too long , but they were truly amazing creatures.  After an absolutely wonderful weekend we trekked back home to two excited pups to begin our 5th week in Napa!